This album makes Album of the Week because Zero 7 just released their new album "The Garden". The new album makes it clear how brilliant Simple Things really was. I plan to write a review of the The Garden as soon as I can figure out how I really feel about it. This is about Simple Things though, and there I can say, without hesitation, that it's a brilliant piece of downtempo electronica.
Smooth, flowing, chill are all ways you can describe this album. It's a great blend of electronic textures with real instruments and smooth vocals and makes great accompaniment while you're working. The beats and vibe drives the music forward without being too distracting and overall just contributes to that feeling of chill that goes so well when writing code.
There isn't a bad song on this album, but the song that initially hooked me was Distractions. For some reason that song just grabbed me and never let go. According to iTunes I've played that song 95 times and I love it just as much now as I did the first time I heard it. Oh yeah, the least played song on this album has 82 plays. Considering I have 30,847 songs in my iTunes library that's a pretty good indication of just how good this album is. Highly recommended.